Exiting Does Not Close PUP Packs

[DJO Maverick]

Attempting to close VPW Iron Maiden in current build will exit it and return to the PBX menu, however it does not kill the PUP process.  Even when exiting subsequently to Windows, Pinup Player continues running and must be manually terminated from Task Manager.  Same issue does not happen running directly from VPX (10.8 64 Final GL) or from PBY.  Seems unique to PBX.

PinballX.iniFetching info... log.txtFetching info...

[Draco1962]

Is that the only table that is not closing properly? If it is the only table of several using PUP then it may not necessarily be PinballX. Please provide examples of other tables if there are any. 

[Draco1962]

https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/9420-pup-packs-not-closing-in-vpx/ - this specifically references Iron Maiden.

[DJO Maverick]

  On 2/6/2025 at 1:39 AM, Draco1962 said:

https://vpuniverse.com/forums/topic/9420-pup-packs-not-closing-in-vpx/ - this specifically references Iron Maiden.

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Unfortunately no real solution in that thread...  It does have a close controller command already in the exit sub; nothing is being run as admin; and on latest versions of all software.  And saliently, it does close properly for me except through PBX.

I don't have a wealth of pup tables (only those that specifically require it), but of those, yeah, it is ONLY this table.  Futurama is fine; Blood Machines is fine; Batman 66 is fine; etc.  Only this table has this issue, and only with PBX.

[scutters]

Strange that it's only one table not exiting correctly.

There's an old workaround to kill pinupplayer here https://forums.gameex.com/forums/topic/25060-resolved-pinuup-player-not-closing/ as a launch after script in PinballX (you'd only need the pinupplayer.exe line in that script)

 

(the normal suspect for pinupplayer not closing on exit for one table is not having controller.stop in the table_exit routine of the tables script, but that's probably not the case with a VPW table!)

[DJO Maverick]

Yeah, definitely not the case for that table.

Certainly possible to use a workaround, though still seems to be under the heading of a bug if it's unique to PBX...

Did observe yesterday that the identical issue does happen for Marty's Willy Wonka Pro (also only from PBX) as well.

[Draco1962]

Doubtful that PinballX will be "bug fixed" for one-off issues with tables launching PUp packs via Pinup Player. @scuttersreference is probably the best alternative available.

Of course, this is just my opinion as I am not the PinballX author.

[DJO Maverick]

I'd venture to say this is no longer a one-off issue as it's now affecting every Pup table I'm playing, including ones that verifiably did not used to have the issue.  Now Batman '66.  I don't have a lot of PUP tables, so I haven't gone through and just tried all of them since this came to light.

This now appears to be more like a current (or recent) build issue.

log.txtFetching info... PinballX.iniFetching info...

[scutters]

From your log it looks like PinballX is resorting to killing VPX rather than a clean close (and that's probably why pinup doesn't exit);

20:04:16.12  2/5/2025:  Visual Pinball Foreground Timeout: 32
20:06:03.74  2/5/2025:  Exit System Control Pressed
20:06:04.56  2/5/2025:  Found Visual Pinball editor window
20:06:12.75  2/5/2025:  Killing process
20:06:12.75  2/5/2025:  Process Closed

Can you launch a few non pinup tables and attach a log file after that (just to see if they exit cleanly) as i expect the log to show something more like;

10:19:00.72  15/02/2025:  Visual Pinball Player window foreground: 9
10:19:02.45  15/02/2025:  Exit System Control Pressed
10:19:10.58  15/02/2025:  Found Visual Pinball editor window
10:19:10.64  15/02/2025:  Process Closed

It seems that for pup tables (at least) on your setup for some reason PinballX isn't finding the Visual Pinball Player window. Why that would suddenly start happening i have no idea 😕, maybe @Tom Speirs does (or if i'm even on the right track here!)

 

[Draco1962]

  On 2/15/2025 at 1:54 AM, DJO Maverick said:

I'd venture to say this is no longer a one-off issue as it's now affecting every Pup table I'm playing, including ones that verifiably did not used to have the issue.  Now Batman '66.  I don't have a lot of PUP tables, so I haven't gone through and just tried all of them since this came to light.

This now appears to be more like a current (or recent) build issue.

log.txt 4.35 kB · 1 download PinballX.ini 6.25 kB · 1 download

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I edited the title of this thread accordingly. Knowing that it impacts multiple PUP tables is more beneficial for a possible solution. Thanks for testing your collection further and reporting back.

[DJO Maverick]

Cactus Canyon, still resorting to kill process.

log.txtFetching info...

[DJO Maverick]

I had a minor flash of inspiration but all for naught.  I remembered I have Tom's extra two lines for the ongoing debugging of video capture...  Tried removing those (just in case), but, no change I'm afraid.  Some normal tables DO exit without issue (see Indy in log 1).  But mostly process killing, which leaves PUP going.

log2.txtFetching info... log.txtFetching info...

[Draco1962]

If you setup a batch file to run the command lines to kill both processes (VPx and PUP) what happens?

[scutters]

  On 2/15/2025 at 6:32 PM, DJO Maverick said:

Some normal tables DO exit without issue (see Indy in log 1).  But mostly process killing, which leaves PUP going.

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The Indy close;

13:24:25.92  2/15/2025:  Exit System Control Pressed
13:24:26.25  2/15/2025:  Found Visual Pinball editor window
13:24:26.59  2/15/2025:  Process Closed

Note that it closed quickly.

I think on your slower table exits PinballX is hitting an internal timeout after around 8 or 9 seconds after asking VPX to close and then kills it when it finds it's still running (again would need @Tom Speirs to confirm). So the cause of the issue is probably that VPX is now exiting slower than it was before and those couple of extra seconds delay now is enough to push it over that timeout limit. 

I'd be tempted to try the DX version to see if that exits quicker for you if you're not using GL specific functionality (or just use the taskkill workaround to kill pinup as a launch after)

[DJO Maverick]

Changing to DX version has no effect.

Launch After batch with powershell -Command "Start-Process 'taskkill' '/IM pinupplayer.exe /T /F' -WindowStyle hidden -Verb runAs" ...

Does technically work, but only after pulling up a UAC window after a several second pause, which is its own problem.

Is there anywhere on the site that I'm just missing to download rollback versions of PBX?  I'd be interested in finding where the perceived regression(s) happened...

 

[Draco1962]

Click the "See Changelog" dropdown in the PinballX download to access previous versions:

[DJO Maverick]

Looks like I might have locked myself out of downloading after getting so many versions in a short span of time, haha...  but luckily found the right one in the end.

This regression happens between 6.29 and 6.30.  This problem does not appear to exist in 6.29, and it does in all builds forward.

[Draco1962]

  On 2/17/2025 at 10:16 PM, DJO Maverick said:

This regression happens between 6.29 and 6.30.  This problem does not appear to exist in 6.29, and it does in all builds forward.

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@Tom Speirs will need to determine what code or library change in 6 30+ may be contributing to the issue you are reporting. 

As for the UAC prompt running Powereshell, have your tried just running command line via batch file instead?

[DJO Maverick]

Honestly, I'm not really inclined to keep messing with the .bat workaround after finding the break point...  At least for personal use, I'll be sticking with the rollback until the next build comes out to try.

[Draco1962]

Keep in mind that any other issues that may result from using an older version will require installing the latest to effectively triage.